


Do you ever wonder if the stars shine out for you?

by Moonyki



Series: Written in the stars [2]
Category: EXO (Band), SHINee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Fluff, M/M, Pining, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 09:45:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16406045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonyki/pseuds/Moonyki
Summary: Taemin's favorite customer always orders a hot chocolate. He always has a sleepy, cute smile on his lips. He always leaves tiny star-shaped origamis behind. And Taemin really, really likes him.





	Do you ever wonder if the stars shine out for you?

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the "Written in the stars" series.  
> It comes after "The moon, the stars, the sun & us", which is a Jongkey story, but is complete on its own and you do not need to have read the first part to understand it.

.

It was completely dark outside when the door of the small café Taemin worked in opened. It had been silent and calm for a while, now that Jonghyun had returned home, and Taemin only had one customer left, sitting at a round table, typing on her computer as she drank her tea.

It had been a bit boring, if he were to be honest, and Taemin kept looking back at the clock behind his counter, hoping that time would suddenly fly and that he'd find himself home quickly. But then, the little bell at the entrance rang, and he turned around to meet a large, fluffy brown scarf, wrapped around a tall man who was smiling sheepishly at him.

"Good evening... Is it still okay to order?"

Taemin stood quiet, his mouth slightly open for a couple of seconds, before he managed to blink back to reality, and awkwardly nodded.

"Yes, yes of course. It's still open for another hour," he said, and then moved behind his cash register. "Ah, hum, good evening."

His customer seemed to relax a bit, and loosened the scarf around his neck. And Taemin did all he could not to stare too obviously. He didn't want to be rude. He was twisting his fingers under the counter, trying to look as professional and casual as he could and offered his brightest smile to the man in front of him.

"A hot chocolate, I suppose?" he asked, his tone a bit cheeky.

His customer blushed. His eyes widened and his cheeks reddened, as if he had just been caught doing something wrong, and Taemin's heart grew wings to fly away into the sky.

"Yes, please. A large one."

Taemin bit his lips, trying not to laugh, and took the money handed to him. There was no need to announce the price of that order anymore. Not between the two of them. All of this was Taemin's most favorite habit. For this specific, adorable and gorgeous customer to come unannounced, steal his breath away, order a hot chocolate, and sit for a little while on one bench as Taemin would spy on him shamelessly for the whole time from behind his coffee machines.

Maybe he should do something about it. Maybe he should confess his undying crush to the man. Maybe he should serenade him. Maybe he should write him poetry or something. But every time this lovely man entered his shop, all of Taemin's courage vanished into thin air and he was nothing more than a little puddle of tears on the ground, barely able to put two words together to form a coherent sentence without stuttering.

So that night, as every other time his hot chocolate crush came, Taemin pretended that he wasn't internally sobbing over his sleepy eyes, golden skin and plushy lips, and wiped the tables with the energy of a desperate lovesick teenager. As always, his customer smiled and waved at him cutely when he disappeared through the door, ten minutes before Taemin had to close. And as always, Taemin sighed dramatically and trotted to the table his crush had just left, to find a small piece of paper, folded into a star shape.

He took it with a giddy smile, and put it preciously in his pocket. Taemin had no idea why his customer left all those stars behind, but he kept them all, locked in a jar in his living room. Maybe the man liked origamis, maybe he just did them out of boredom as he drank his hot chocolate, but on some hopeful days, Taemin liked to think his crush left them for him. As a silent, adorable little present.

But that day, another surprise was there for him. As he was patting the cushions, putting them back nicely on the bench, his hand caught a little thing, lost, forgotten and abandoned there. It was a black leather, very simple wallet. And Taemin stared at it for a while. There was no doubt in his mind that this wallet was his favorite customer's property. He had seen it plenty of times in those pretty hands already, confined in between long fingers. Right there, under his nose, was the golden opportunity to learn his crush's name, which he had been far too embarrassed to ever ask -he had also always lacked a good excuse to do so-.

Pinching his lips together in excitement, Taemin opened the wallet.

His name was Kim Jongin. And he was absolutely stunning on his driver license, which should have been a surprise because nobody ever looked good on those pics, but truly, Kim Jongin was something else entirely. A blessing from above. Thus, of course, he looked good on his driver license's picture, and Taemin couldn't hold back his wanton little whimper.

 

Kim Jongin didn't come that often in the coffee shop, unfortunately. Taemin couldn't really blame him. It would be very expensive to drink hot chocolates every day, wouldn't it? And Taemin always told himself that it made his visits all the more precious, even though he couldn't deny that he would cherish each of his comings all the same if he were to see him three times a day. Or more. The more the better, truly.

So, even though he had half expected it for the obvious reason of a forgotten wallet, Taemin was positively delighted when he heard the bell rang loudly, and turned around to see him, there, in the flesh. Kim Jongin. His crush. His hot chocolate man, early in the morning as Taemin was barely opening the shop.

He was exceptionally handsome on that fine day, and seemed even sleepier than usual. His hair was sticking in every directions and Taemin was back to being a small pool of adoration.

"Hi," Jongin said, slightly out of breath.

"Good morning," Taemin exclaimed, with too much enthusiasm for such an early hour.

Jongin blinked a couple of times, and finally smiled at him, before he tiptoed to the counter.

"Excuse me, did you perhaps find a wallet there last night? I lost it and I was hoping-... Please tell me I left it here...?"

He was rubbing at his ear, visibly embarrassed, and Taemin barely contained a fond sigh.

"A wallet...," Taemin repeated very slowly, innocently taping his chin with his index. "Did I find a wallet? Mhmm... How is it exactly?"

Jongin pinched his lips, furrowing his eyebrows in disarray as he stammered, looking all naive and cute.

"Well it's- hum... it's made of black leather, big like this," Jongin said, showing the size of his wallet with four fingers. "One corner is damaged and hum... I-... I don't know, it's plain and-..."

Taemin chuckled, waving his hand between the two of them.

"I found it, I found it. I was just teasing you."

Jongin let out a long sigh of relief and offered a contrite little smile to Taemin, who just couldn't believe the sheer innocence of that man. He grabbed the cardboard box laying on the ground by his feet, and gave his wallet back to Jongin.

"Here it is."

A bright grin bloomed on Jongin's face as he caught his belonging.

"Oh damn, thank you!"

He laughed, and Taemin shivered at the sound of it.

"Is there anything else I can do for you, Mister Kim Jongin?" Taemin smugly asked.

His tone, albeit mischievous, wasn't exactly as playful and idiotic as he had originally planned. Maybe he did wish to be able to please Jongin in a thousand other ways.

Jongin's eyes widened a bit and he swallowed with some difficulty. He put his wallet in his back pocket and coughed slightly, scratching his cheek awkwardly.

"Hum, can I have a hot chocolate, now that I'm here?"

Taemin laughed.

"Sure. Takeaway?"

Jongin looked at the watch on his wrist and scrunched his nose.

"Oh, yes, that'd be better."

Taemin made his drink, and almost ruined it by putting too much milk because he was busy glancing at Jongin from the corner of his eyes.

"See you soon," he said as Jongin was stepping back towards the door with the cutest smile stretched on his lips.

And Jongin stopped. He furrowed his eyebrows a bit, then cleared his throat.

"Did you-...," he started, but stopped. He took a long inhale and looked Taemin straight in the eyes. "Did you find my notes, too?"

Taemin squinted his eyes a bit, and tilted his head. He wasn't sure what Jongin meant by that, but he hadn't found any notebook, or piece of paper anywhere near his table last evening. Jongin was staring at him with hopeful eyes and it broke Taemin's heart that he couldn't tell him he did.

"No, I'm very sorry... I didn't find anything like that," he admitted painfully.

And the worst thing happened. He saw Jongin's face crumble into sadness. He heard his disappointed little "oh", and those deep brown eyes lowered to the ground.

"What did they look like?" Taemin immediately asked, trotting away from his counter. "I could search again, maybe-..."

But Jongin interrupted him, with a somber, bitter smile and a wave of his hand.

"It's alright. Don't worry. I have to go now..."

Before Taemin could say anything else, he disappeared, taking Taemin's small heavy heart away with him.

Another customer came in right after Jongin left, and Taemin didn't even have time to mope about all of this. When he first got a little break, between two coffee addicts, he scurried back to Jongin's table, and moved the cushions around. But sadly, those notes were nowhere to be found.

 

Jongin didn't come back for a while, and Taemin was starting to worry. Not that he ever mentally noted every day Jongin came and counted the days without him in despair, but really, it was the longest he had ever gone without seeing his hot chocolate's face and everything was terrible. It was even more unbearable to hear Jonghyun chirp about his upcoming date with that Kibum-something guy when he was here, hopelessly alone, deprived of hot chocolate sweetness, sunny smile and little paper stars.

He had been cleaning up a couple of cups when Jonghyun had stopped blabbering about his date, and straightened on his seat at the counter to smirk at him.

"There's someone for you," he sing-songed.

Taemin almost let go of the mug in his hands because there was only one reason for Jonghyun to use that awful teasing tone of his. As he spun around, his heart exploded in a thousands little fireworks, and he didn't even try to contain his smile.

"Oh, hi Jongin," he simpered, immediately coming to the man and forgetting about his best friend, who was looking at him with two raised eyebrows.

"Hi," Jongin answered in a chuckle. "Mister Hot Chocolate."

Taemin stood still at the nickname, his eyes growing wide, and he saw Jongin rub at his ear. The gesture was particularly endearing, if Taemin were to be asked. But alas, nobody ever asked Taemin about Jongin. He would love to, because he had a lot of things to say about the man and he would very much like to rant about his beauty at any given opportunity.

"I don't know your name," Jongin explained with a pout. "So I usually call you Hot Chocolate. Because you make them really good. That's silly, sorry."

"It's not," Taemin squeaked, and he internally winced at how acute his voice sounded. "But my name is Taemin, if you want to know..."

He kept repeating himself that admitting he also used to call Jongin “Hot Chocolate” would be extremely awkward. It was tempting, but it would most likely result in him blushing and thus, embarrassing himself. If he started to spill information like that, who knew where he would stop. He might just confess his crush in the process.

"Taemin," Jongin repeated, with a mischievous smile, and Taemin almost whimpered. "Alright then. May I have a hot chocolate, please?"

"Of course."

When Jongin went away with his drink, Taemin let himself slouch against the wall. He barely paid attention to the snort Jonghyun let out. But he couldn't feign to not hear him at all.

"You're making sheep's eyes at him," Jonghyun cackled. "It's embarrassing to watch."

Taemin glared at him and tried to hit him with his towel, but his friend dodged it easily.

"Oh shut up. You went with “what's your moon sign?” at your boyfriend so you have no right to tell me I'm being lame."

Jonghyun straightened up on his seat to point his index at him.

"But it worked!"

"It doesn't mean it wasn't lame."

Jonghyun pulled out a face at him and the only thing that stopped Taemin from doing the same was that Jongin was facing him and with his luck, he was sure the man would perk up to look at him the moment he would pull his tongue at his best friend. So he didn't.

Instead, he urged Jonghyun to go on his assigned stool to play his damn guitar, as he was supposed to -and was paid for- so he would stop bothering him. Jonghyun went away, not without a last snicker at Taemin's longing glance towards Jongin, and started singing in the corner of the coffee shop. He was giving some melancholic and romantic soundtrack to Taemin's little daydreams.

Jongin stayed almost an hour, sitting a few meters away from Taemin, scribbling down his notebook endlessly. And Taemin wondered what he was writing about, all the time. He wondered what Jongin could study that would make him so passionate he barely ever raised his nose. Almost every time he did, though, he caught Taemin glancing back at him, and his waiter would jump a bit, sometimes blush, and always let something fall on the ground.

When Jongin got up, that day, and put back his coat, Taemin felt even more crestfallen than usual, and he blamed the sappy songs Jonghyun had been singing for the last fifteen minutes. But his hot chocolate crush did something unusual. He came by the counter on his way out, with his hands stuck in his pockets.

"Bye Taemin," he said, "see you next time!"

Taemin blinked excessively in surprise, and managed to stammer an answer before Jongin disappeared away from him once more.

"Oh, bye..."

Taemin finished the drinks he was supposed to be making for the couple waiting a bit further away with a renewed energy fueled by the warmness that was spreading in his chest at the sound of Jongin's voice. Then, as soon as he could, he tiptoed to the table his crush had been seating at. He couldn't help his grin when his eyes fell on the yellow little lucky star waiting there. But as he took it in his hand, he frowned. It was bit damaged, in one fold. And he wondered if maybe Jongin had spilled a bit of his drink on it. The thought soon left him, as he realized it was a tiny little stain of ink. Probably coming from the man's incessant scribbles. It made Taemin smile even wider.

He started to get back to his coffee machines, his eyes never leaving the precious origami in his fingers, when he noticed another trace of ink, lost into the creases. Taemin didn't hear the two customers who wished him a good afternoon as they left the shop. He was staring at his star with a frown, and, driven by a sudden and inexplicable feeling, his fingers flattened the paper. He searched for the end of the strip and unfolded it. A tiny voice at the back of his head was screaming at him to stop with this nonsense because he was destroying Jongin's precious work and he knew he wouldn't be able to do it back again, but it was quickly shushed into complete silence.

_Did my stars reach you?_

Hopeful words were written in a beautiful handwriting at the center of the strip of paper, surrounded by dozens of littles drawings of stars, which Taemin had previously mistaken for ink stains.

Taemin's heart was beating incredibly loudly, the sound resonating in his temples as his hands grew moist while holding his opened lucky star.

"Excuse me, Sir?"

As if lost in a dream, Taemin rose his head, blinking awkwardly at the customer who was waiting in front of the counter. He heard himself apologize as he scurried back to his spot, his fingers putting away Jongin's note, leaving it in his apron. But his mind never left those five words, he felt his whole body tremble with frenzy as hope was assaulting him. The only coherent thought that kept haunting him, was that he needed to open each and every star he ever gathered from Jongin's table. He needed to get back home and open them. Maybe one of them would carry _something_. Anything. A word. A sentence. Something Jongin hopefully would have left for him, and him only.

His mind couldn't stop imagining a thousand scenarios of Jongin leaving him notes. Jongin writing to him. What could he possibly tell him? What if Jongin wrote him anything even slightly romantic? At some point he even started to believe that those notes Jongin had been asking about, were things he had left for him in tiny pretty stars. And then, Taemin cursed at himself for being far too optimistic and delirious. But no matter how much he tried to tell his heart to calm down and stop shooting for the stars -quite literally- he couldn't listen to himself and kept on dreaming.

 

When he entered his apartment, Taemin threw away his shoes and ran up to his living room. He stopped in front of his shelf and looked over the jar filled with Jongin's stars. His hot chocolate sweetheart had left so many of them already, and Taemin suddenly realized just how long he had been pining over the man. Long enough for his jar to be half full. Dread fell on him like heavy rain. What if Jongin never wrote anything in any other star and Taemin was about to destroy them all for nothing? What if Jongin did write in them but they weren't addressed to him? What if he did write cute little sentences to no one in particular, like small poetry to the wind and Taemin was never meant to read them because he shouldn't have picked them up in the first place?

Taemin let out a long sigh as he grabbed his jar and sat on his couch, hugging it against his stomach in distress. He was being ridiculous. He had been waiting, stomping in his coffee shop all afternoon, getting crazy with the need to get back home, and now he couldn't bring himself to open the damn jar. He feared the crushing disappointment that would follow any empty star.

"You are impossible," he said loudly, to himself, and frowned. "Enough is enough."

He fiercely opened the container and inhaled deeply.

"Even if he didn't write anything-...," he tried to comfort himself, but didn't finish his sentence.

Instead, he took a star, and slowly, unfolded it.

_I like your hands! Cute! Cute! Cute!_ _♡_

Taemin gasped and dropped the paper on his lap. He stayed like that, immobile, wide eyes staring at Jongin's handwriting in disbelief, for a couple of seconds. His heart pounced wildly inside his chest, as if it tried desperately to escape. And probably go out there in the cold to look for Jongin.

Then Taemin jumped; and almost let his jar fall on the ground. With impatient, shivering fingers, he reached for another star. And another one. And another one. His lips were trembling with all the whimpers he was trying to contain.

_You have the most beautiful smile in the universe. I love it a lot._

_You changed your hair!_ _♡_ _Purple suits you so well._

_When you smile at other customers like that... I get so jealous... Sorry. I want your smile all for myself._

_Ah... I wonder... Are my stars all piled up in your trash can?_

_Don't ever cover up your laugh, please. It's my favorite._

_You catch me every time I look at you. That's not very nice. Let me look at you secretly... I feel embarrassed._

_I want to ask you on a date. If I do, will you say yes? Please, say yes!_

_Your eyes are so pretty. When you look at me from under your eyelashes... I get really weak._

_That mole on your nose... It's very sexy. I want to kiss it._

_Last time I came, it wasn't you. So I left. I only want hot chocolate made by you. Hehe._

Taemin couldn't breathe properly. He was surrounded by sweet notes praising him and he struggled to even admit any of this could be real. He had been collecting and keeping those precious confessions for so long, and he couldn't help but feel a bit stupid.

How could he have known?

_I can't stop thinking about you... all the time... but I'm so scared you'll turn me down. What should I do?_

_Even if you don't read me, I like writing to you._

_Your arms in that short-sleeve shirt... Oh ho. It's trouble for me._ _♡_

_Last night, I dreamt of you. So I had to come today to see you. But I can't tell you my dream! It's a secret!_

Taemin's heart had melted into a puddle of goo and he had to stop unfolding stars to grip a cushion. He hid his blushing face in it and let out the squeal he couldn't hold back anymore. He lowered the cushion, only to stare once more at all those colorful strips filled with adoration and cuteness and he squirmed on his couch.

The idea that Jongin had been dreaming about him for probably as long as he had been longing for the man was making him feel dizzy. Those shy little messages he left behind were so gentle and loving; Taemin couldn't wait to see him again.

His throat suddenly tightened. What was he going to go? Could he just walk up to Jongin and bluntly ask him out on a date? Should he admit he finally found his notes? Taemin whined and let himself fall on his side with a loud sigh. Right before his nose, was one of Jongin's little message.

_Your lovely smile didn't reach your eyes today... Are you alright? I wish I could hold you._

Taemin had no idea which day it had been and what could have possibly happened to him that even Jongin's presence in the café didn't fix. He couldn't remember. He didn't care. The concern and affection in that note written on a green paper felt so genuine and warm.

He took it in his hands, his fingers tracing each letter, when an idea came to him. Maybe he could try. Maybe he could write lots of adorable little things to Jongin too, fold them into tiny stars, and give them back to him.

Filled with energy and cheerfulness again, Taemin got up and hurried to pick his laptop from his desk. He searched for a tutorial on how to make lucky stars and happily started to fold strips of paper.

 

After twenty-seven minutes and fifteen poor attempts at folding strips of papers, Taemin let out a long, loud groan of exasperation and glared at the tiny origami in his hand, that vaguely resembled a star. If he were to tilt his head and close one eye, it actually looked kind of okay. It occurred to him that he might have been a little optimistic with his manual abilities and that he might not be able to fill even a tiny jar of lucky stars for Jongin. He wasn't even sure he would manage to make one of those damn origami -that dared to be rated as easy in the infuriating video he had watched twelve times already- well enough for him to not die of shame when he'll offer it to Jongin.

Taemin glanced at the folded paper in his palm with a pout.

"Why do you hate me?" he asked in a whisper. "I was trying to be romantic. Can't you help me out a bit?"

With a sad frown, he took yet another strip of paper and tried again. He still didn't even know what he wanted to write inside. All of his ideas sounded like something Jonghyun would suggest, and thus, were thrown away into oblivion. For some reason, his best friend could always get away with suave, smooth nonsense that Taemin couldn't dare to say out loud. It was too embarrassing. He didn't want to be embarrassed watching Jongin open his lucky star.

When he finally achieved a decent lucky star and found a correct sentence to write inside, he realized he would have to wait a few days to see Jongin again. Time had never seemed so long.

He spent the following days staring helplessly at the door of his coffee shop, hoping relentlessly that Jongin would cross it sooner than expected and smile at him. The small lucky star he had put together was waiting in the pocket of his apron, and he kept twiddling it nervously. It was orange, because Taemin had no other colored paper at home than orange. He couldn't even remember why he had some orange sheets to begin with.

The tips of his star were starting to tarnish and Taemin hoped that Jongin would hurry up to get thirsty for hot chocolate, before he would lose his mind and his star.

He had lost count of how many times already he had read and reread each and every small compliments Jongin had wrote him. And now he wanted to finally confess. He wanted his chance to hold Jongin's hand as soon as possible. He wanted to get the kiss on his nose that Jongin had kind of promised.

"Hi, Taemin."

Taemin jumped out of his reveries and dropped the small glass he had been holding. He didn't even pay attention to the sound of broken dishes that followed, as he turned his head to look at Jongin, standing behind the counter. His crush widened his eyes, coming closer to look at the desolation at Taemin's feet.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to startle you, are you alright?"

Taemin blinked, and a bright smile bloomed on his lips. Jongin was here. Jongin was back. Jongin was standing right in front of him with furrowed eyebrows and worried eyes.

His heart got carried away, beating loudly as if it was trying to get Jongin's attention. Taemin hadn't thought that it would be any different to see Jongin after reading all of his little notes, but it was. It was something else entirely.

The man seemed even more endearing than usual. He looked even cuter. And suddenly, Taemin wasn't only lost in his own admiration and adoration. Now, he finally noticed the nervous little glances Jongin was stealing at his lips.

"Hi, Jongin," Taemin ultimately breathed out.

Jongin frowned, and looked back at the broken glass still waiting on the ground.

"Hum," he coughed, a bit ashamed. "Are you okay? I can pay for this, if needed... I'm sorry I scared you."

Taemin shook his head slightly, and finally looked down with a pout.

He wasn't that embarrassed about looking like an idiot, because now, he knew that Jongin was very fond of absolutely everything about him.

"Oh, that?" he sighed. "Don't worry, it's alright. I'll clean it. I was... daydreaming a bit, sorry."

Jongin's face darkened a bit; his lips only formed a bitter line on his face. Taemin wondered what was going on inside that pretty mind of his.

"Okay," Jongin simply whispered.

"Which size do you want today?"

Taemin peered at him from the corner of his eyes, a mischievous grin playing on his mouth, and he saw Jongin's cheeks redden a bit.

"Large, please."

"Will that be all?"

"Yes."

Taemin nodded, tapping on his cash register and he caught the way Jongin was staring at his hands. It made his heart flutter.

"You look-...," Jongin started to say, as he waited for his drink. But he cut himself in the middle of his sentence.

"I look what?" Taemin encouraged him softly.

Jongin rubbed at his ear with a sheepish smile.

"I don't know. I was going to say happy... but it's not quite right. You look... happily starry-eyed."

Taemin laughed.

"Do I? Well, that's quite right, I actually feel like I'm walking on clouds... I feel like I could do anything."

"I'm sure you could."

There was so much tenderness and attachment in Jongin's tone, that Taemin thought he was going to drown in that honey. How could he have never noticed that ocean of affection in his eyes?

"Jongin," Taemin called gently.

"Mhmm?"

"Can you wait for your drink at a table? I will come bring it to you, okay?"

He saw an intense confusion fall down on Jongin's features, followed by a slight pain. He wanted to tell the man not to feel so rejected, but his plan was bigger. And after all that hard work he had done, he really wanted to get on with it.

"Yes," Jongin stammered. "Yes, of course."

He stumbled away from the counter and to a table, where he sat, looking pouty and dejected.

Meanwhile, Taemin felt a rush of adrenaline and giddiness swallow him whole. He hurried to get a broom to clean the mess he had made of shattered glass, and hopped everywhere to get Jongin's order done.

He took a walnut and honey muffin out from the showcase because he knew it was Jongin's favorite, and carefully placed his orange lucky star next to it, moving it right and left by a few centimeters, trying to find the perfect angle. Then he made his hot chocolate, topped it with cream and looked at the handful of small marshmallows he had prepared. He had wanted to place them into a heart. He had thought about that for the past two days and it had seemed like such a brilliant, albeit cheesy, idea at the moment. But now that he was about to do it, it sounded a thousand times more stupid than romantic. He clasped his hands into tight fists and felt himself blush. He knew that his crush wasn't unrequited, it was reciprocal, so really there was no need to feel that flustered... but still, what if small marshmallows made him cross a line that would bring Jongin to reconsider his infatuation over him?

"You coward," he muttered to himself, before he grabbed the damn marshmallows and placed them into the biggest, cheesiest, most shameful heart he could do.

Jongin just had to get the message now. Jonghyun would have been so proud.

Taking the tray in his hands, Taemin made his way to Jongin's spot. The man had took his notebook out already, and was scribbling, as he always did.

"Here I am," Taemin chirped. "Where should I put this?"

Jongin perked up and moved his stuff around, nibbling on his bottom lip nervously.

"Oh, thanks. Sorry. Here."

Taemin took a short inhale and tried to tame his trembling fingers as he put down the little plate with Jongin's favorite muffin.

"I didn't-...," Jongin breathed out.

But then his eyes grew big, as he stared at the small paper star. He seemed frozen on his spot.

"I know," Taemin said softly. "It's on the house."

He put down the hot chocolate right in front of Jongin's nose, but the man was still blinking at the origami a few centimeters away from his hand, as if bewitched.

"Enjoy your chocolate."

And with that, Taemin disappeared.

Jongin perked up to stare at his back as he walked away. Then, his eyes lowered on his beverage and widened impossibly. He heard himself gasp and he was certain that his whole body had gone stiff and hot. Taemin had drawn a heart with marshmallows. Taemin had drawn a heart in his hot chocolate. Taemin had brought him a heart with sweets. Taemin, whom he had been completely smitten with for the past seven months, had offered him his favorite muffin, along with a marshmallow heart and there was this lucky star waiting in front of him and Jongin felt like he would combust any second now. It was tiny, and a bit crumpled. It was adorable.

He snatched the star in between moist fingers, as if it could fly away, and anxiously opened it. Had Taemin read his stars all along? Before he could think more and start questioning everything up to his very existence, Jongin unfolded the star, hoping there was, indeed, something written there.

_If you ask, I'll say yes._

Jongin stared at the few words and felt his heart clench inside his chest. He tried to get up and yelped as his thighs bumped violently against the table. His hot chocolate spilled over the cup, flooding his saucer, but he didn't care. He laboriously turned around his table and trotted to the counter, where Taemin was waiting for him, staring, his laugh hidden behind his hand. His ears were red.

"Please, come on a date with me," Jongin blurted out.

He suddenly noticed the two persons, who were staring at pastries next to him and straightened up at his sudden outburst. But he couldn't care, not when all of his attention was on Taemin's sweet smile and sparkling eyes.

"It would be my pleasure," he said.

And he gave Jongin that smile, the most beautiful in the whole universe, the one that put all the stars to shame.

.

.

.

**Author's Note:**

> ♥  
> I got a sugar rush writing this, to be honest. I really can't help writing Taekai all cheesy & soft & cute & overly sweet....  
> I hope you liked it (*´꒳`*)
> 
> The title comes from the song "Autumn leaves" by Ed Sheeran.


End file.
